General / Editor / 31 March 2007 /

Geoff Ogilvy feels that Australian golf is in a healthy state as seven players bid to become the first man from Down Under to win the US Masters at Augusta.

Ogilvy believes Greg Norman's impact on the world stage inspired the current crop of Australian golfers to take up the game and the current US Open champion hopes one will go one better than the 'Great White Shark' - a three-time runner up at Augusta, who also finished in the top five nine times.

Ogilvy said: "We had the best and most notable player in the world (Norman) and he made a lot of kids pick up golf 20 years ago.

"I mean, he was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods came along. He was the big gallery draw and had that aura whenever he went anywhere.

"We all wanted to be Greg Norman. He made golf cool in Australia - before him it wasn't.

"He had success and then Finchy (Ian Baker-Finch) came along and had success and (Steve) Elkington won a major.

"Winning promotes winning. You play against a guy in Australia and you beat him and then he goes to the US Tour and wins a tournament you think 'if he can do it, I can do that' and it snowballs.

Ogilvy heads an impressive-looking Aussie cast at Augusta and is available at 42 to win, with world number five Adam Scott the next best Australian at 50.

Unsurprisingly, world number one Tiger Woods heads the outright winner market at 2.54 but with Robert Allenby (75), Stuart Appleby (150), Nick O'Hern (190), Rod Pampling (300) and Aaron Baddeley (160) involved the top Australian market may well prove a tough one to call.

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